Pokrovskoye-Streshnevo Residents Appeal to President Over School Shortage

«Children simply aren»t being admitted to schools near home« — dozens of families in Pokrovskoye-Streshnevo have encountered this problem, according to residents. Parents say there are not enough places, and appeals to the Moscow Department of Education have not changed the situation. As a result, Muscovites have recorded an appeal to the President of Russia. MSK1.RU investigated what is actually happening in the district.

One of the concerned mothers, Elvina Iskhakova, says that when buying apartments in the residential complexes Holland Park and ÁLIA, people relied on the developer«s promised development of social infrastructure. They were told about schools and transport.

School No. 727, located on Volokolamskoye Shosse, has long been overcrowded, according to Iskhakova. Even the school«s website states there are no places. The same story at School No. 58. According to its website, there are no vacancies.

«There are 6–7 classes in each grade at the school. The administration openly and repeatedly states that it does not have the capacity to open additional classes and does not plan to accept new students. The rejections affect dozens of families,» the parent shared.

According to the parents« appeal to the president, one of the buildings of School No. 727 on Volokolamskoye Shosse, with a design capacity of 1,100 places, currently has about 1,625 students. Another building, designed for 550 people, has 626 students. Parents say the new school building on Nikolaya Ozerova Street has not yet been handed over to the educational institution, and the timeline for its opening is unknown.

According to the editorial office«s interlocutor, even the opening of new buildings does not solve the problem. The schools are overcrowded. They claim that already enrolled students are being transferred to the new buildings, while additional first-grade classes for children living in the area are not being opened.

Parents of students who were unable to get into a school closer to home have rallied into a single group. There are already more than 170 of them. Together they wrote:

«People are worried; many say they haven»t been able to sleep peacefully since spring because they don«t know where to place their child. Some are already agreeing to distant schools out of desperation,» says Elvina Iskhakova. «According to information available to residents, about 450 applications for admission/transfer have been submitted to School No. 727, which will likely be refused due to lack of places. There are also no places for children in Schools No. 1285 and 830.»

Parents say they have repeatedly appealed to the Moscow Department of Education, but the responses, according to them, boil down to a recommendation to submit documents to other schools.

«I filed a complaint with the department. In response, I was told that it is possible to submit documents to Schools No. 830 and 1285. No one contacted me personally. Refusals keep coming from the school,» a resident recounts.

Parents also cite the distance to alternative schools as a problem. According to them, the walk to Schools No. 830 and 1285 takes 30 to 40 minutes and goes across several major roads, including Volokolamskoye Shosse and the MCD-2 railway tracks. In addition, residents note that the only bus route runs approximately once every half hour, so elementary school children cannot get to school independently and safely.

In the appeal to the president, parents ask that Educational Complex No. 58 be made publicly accessible to residents of the microdistrict, that children be admitted based on their place of residence, and that School No. 727 switch to two-shift operation to open additional classes. In addition, residents ask to speed up the commissioning of two new buildings for School No. 727 and simultaneously take emergency measures to address the current shortage of places.

As the Moscow Department of Education indicated to MSK1.RU, only three schools — No. 727, 1285, and 830 — are assigned to residents of the Holland Park and ÁLIA housing complexes. Judging by the websites of the last two institutions, there are few places, but they are available.

Despite the parents« statements, the department hopes that the situation in Pokrovskoye-Streshnevo will be saved by schools preparing to open. One of them is scheduled to open this year.

«As part of the Holland Park residential complex, the developer plans to commission and open four educational facilities — two kindergartens with a total of 450 places and two schools with a total of 1,700 places. Subject to construction readiness, one kindergarten and two schools are planned to be commissioned in 2026, and another kindergarten in 2027,» the department notes.

Also as part of the ÁLIA residential complex, the construction of a building with an elementary school block for 350 places and a preschool department for 300 places, as well as an educational complex for 800 places, is planned. But residents will have to wait until 2031.

Earlier, students of Synergy University complained on social media that the university is closing its theater department. The university supposedly finds it more profitable to develop a school of modern music with the support of rapper Basta (Vasily Vakulenko).